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The King is Dead

Saturday, February 2, 2013

The Duellists and White Zombie now on Blu-Ray

Bonus Savage Worlds content follows...

To my shame, I must admit that I have never seen "The Duellists," Ridley Scott's premiere feature film based on a Joseph Conrad story of the same name. Not only is it a movie revolving around swordfights, it's a movie about swordfights in the Napoleonic Wars (AKA the Regency Era). I no longer have any excuse, as the film has just been re-released on Blu-ray. If you're not as convinced as I am that this is a must buy, check out this review from Black Gate -- "Adventure on Film: The Duellists" -- or check out the original trailer.

I have, on the other hand, seen the classic Bela Lugosi film "White Zombie."

One thing I've found in running sword duels in Savage Worlds is that the standard "count down" initiative system gives a lot of the ability to control the fight to the character with worse initiative. What I've started doing is "count up/count down;" the character/player with lower initiative declares his action, the player with higher initiative declares hers, and then play proceeds from high to low. This means that if the character with worse initiative declares he is doing Full Defense, the character with better initiative can declare a Wild Attack to counter it. I've always gotten the impression that fencing is more about anticipating and countering your opponent's maneuvers than it is about simply being faster, and count up/count down for initiative definitely skews combat that direction.

PWYW For This Thing We Wrote!

Steamscapes by Four-in-Hand Games

Buy This Thing I Wrote!

Buy This Thing I Wrote

Savage Worlds

Buy This Thing I Wrote!

Buy This Thing I Wrote

Featuring "The Super-Power Toybox: Beyond Capes and Tights"

Buy This Thing I Wrote

Featuring "An Abundance of Gods," an examination of Shinto.

Buy This Thing I Wrote

Contains "The Badass," a new character archetype complete with new Edges, Hindrances, and a funky grindhouse adventure; "La Pantera," a Zorro-esque pulp superheroine and her supporting cast; and "Zhàndòu: City of Warriors," a wuxia setting that includes adventure seeds and crappy maps I drew!